Newtonhill

The Newtonhill branch was a former Little Chef on the A90 southbound beside Newtonhill, Aberdeenshire

When this Little Chef opened between 1968 and 1972 things looked very different to today. The road it sat upon was a single carriageway and part of the main A92 route between Dundee and Aberdeen. At the time it would have been a good 10 minutes from Aberdeen and able to serve both sides of the road easily. It was also given the name of Stonehaven, after the town which lay around 5 miles to the south of it.

The building was built in Little Chef's house style of the period with flat roof, large windows and some external brickwork detailing.

By the mid 70s, the name of the site had changed from Stonehaven to Newtonhill, the village that the site was located beside.

The next 20 years were to see a lot of changes. North Sea Oil was discovered causing a huge influx of people and industries to Aberdeen. This brought with it the growth of commuter settlements, many of which grew around the road between Aberdeen and Stonehaven. Over time this brought with it road improvements, with the A92 upgraded to dual carriageway in the early 90s and a large retail park springing up at Portlethen a few miles to the north housing a supermarket cafe and with a Brewers Fayre beside it.

This meant three things for the Little Chef. The journey between Stonehaven and Aberdeen had shortened considerably, which lessened the need for a stop, it was now only serving the southbound traffic due to the road upgrade and it now had more competition and competition that was accessible by a grade separated junction, meaning that it could serve traffic from both directions.

Despite this, the Little Chef continued to trade for a number of years but sadly closed in 1999/ 2000. After a brief spell as an independent cafe, it was turned into an Indian restaurant and still trades as one today from the same building, although it has changed name many times since